We are living in a digital world, where everything is just a click away. Nowadays, digital presence has become necessary for every business, organization, or company. We are living in a time where if a company or business doesn’t have any sort of digital presence, people lack trust in them. Doing business without having anything online, is the same as doing business without telling anyone.
There are definitely still small business owners who don’t consider that they need a website but they are becoming far and few between, This is partly due to covid where in-person business was not always possible, so more and more people began to rely heavily on the internet.
A professional website isn’t a luxury or just a nice thing to have — it’s an affordable, fundamental tool that every company needs.
One of the key words there is ‘affordable’. A good website that brings leads and customers to your business, is the gift that just keeps giving and you only pay for it once and there it sits, a beautiful beacon for your customers and clients.
So what are the three main reasons to have one?
How can a customer use your local business if they don’t know you exist?
If you don’t have a website and the client or customer can’t search for you online, then they will just go to the nearest competitor that actually does have one. This is the first and most important reason why small businesses must have a website because as Bob Hooey says:
“If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will”
Many small businesses opt for a facebook business page only and this is a huge mistake.
Now don’t get me wrong, facebook is a great additional tool for businesses but the problem here is that your customer has to know that you actually exist and what you’re called, in order to find you on that platform. And even then, if you’re like a lot of people, you’ll look to see if they have a website listed to do more research. Whether you’re a Lawyer or a Landscaper, if people have no idea you exist and they need your services, then they are going to google something like, “Lawyer near me’ or ‘Landscaper near me’. If you don’t have a website, then the competition will be thanking you for the extra business because they are the ones that are going to be found not you.
Small, local businesses need a website in order to build trust
Now more than ever, customers like to gather information about your business before purchasing. Most people have an electronic device at the end of their arm that they can search from. Even, if a customer is going to purchase from a physical shop, they will still do research online before going.
This is all about building trust for your market and having a well-designed website will give them confidence in your ability to give them what they want and need. If I am searching for something in particular and that business doesn’t have a site, I find that incredibly frustrating as I can’t get the information I want about that service or product and as a consequence, that business will go down to the bottom of my list of prospects. In the digital age that we are in, I don’t trust businesses who don’t have a website because I have no way of knowing who they are and what they’re about. They may turn out to be the best in the world but to be perfectly honest, like most people, I’m not going to go to the extra effort of finding out who they are – I expect them to put the effort into telling me!
E-commerce:
E-commerce was taking off even before the pandemic and now it’s being used more and more where people would rather shop online instead of coming out because it is so much more convenient. So, if you’re a business that sells, well almost anything really, then giving consumers the ability to purchase from you online is going to become more and more necessary for your business to survive. We’ve created a world full of super busy people and those super busy people would rather purchase through a keyboard than have to get in their car.
Wrap-Up:
The world has irrevocably changed and we can no longer rely on the phone book or newspapers or anything printed for that matter, to let people know about us and what we do. It’s a digital age and you can get anything online. And remember if you don’t have a good enough digital footprint by having a website then I’m sure that your competitors will be thanking you for that and for all of the extra business they get as a result.